The Pleistocene Era: The History of the Ice Age and the Dawn of Modern Humans

The Pleistocene spans a period from around 2.5 mya to just over 12,000 years ago, and it was an epoch of enormous change on Earth, mainly characterized by climate changes involving fluctuations between periods of extreme heat and long periods of glaciation. This period is commonly known as the Ice Age despite the fact there were actually a number of separate periods of cold.

Along with the climate challenges, this was also the period that saw the development of modern humans. The origin o...